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Nano Research 2019, 12(5): 1187-1192 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2380-1
Research Article | Issue | Published: 28 March 2019

Compressive surface strained atomic-layer Cu2O on Cu@Ag nanoparticles

Show Author's Information Xiyue Zhu1,  Hongpan Rong1( ),  Xiaobin Zhang2,  Qiumei Di1,  Huishan Shang1,  Bing Bai1,  Jiajia Liu1,  Jia Liu1,  Meng Xu1,  Wenxing Chen1,  Jiatao Zhang1( )
Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction-Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications,Experimental Center of Advanced Materials, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology,Beijing,100081,China;
Center for Nano Materials and Technology,Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi,Ishikawa,923-1292,Japan;
Keywords:
catalytic activity, compressive surface strain, atomic-layer Cu2O, precise thickness-control
Topics:
Copper oxidesCore shell nanoparticlesHigh resolution transmission electron microscopyNanoparticlesSilver compoundsSilver nanoparticlesSurface structureSynthesis (chemical)Thickness control
Cite this article:
Zhu X, Rong H, Zhang X, et al. Compressive surface strained atomic-layer Cu2O on Cu@Ag nanoparticles. Nano Research, 2019, 12(5): 1187-1192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2380-1
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Control of surface structure at the atomic level can effectively tune catalytic properties of nanomaterials. Tuning surface strain is an effective strategy for enhancing catalytic activity; however, the correlation studies between the surface strain with catalytic performance are scant because such mechanistic studies require the precise control of surface strain on catalysts. In this work, a simple strategy of precisely tuning compressive surface strain of atomic-layer Cu2O on Cu@Ag (AL-Cu2O/Cu@Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) is demonstrated. The AL-Cu2O is synthesized by structure evolution of Cu@Ag core-shell nanoparticles, and the precise thickness-control of AL-Cu2O is achieved by tuning the molar ratio of Cu/Ag of the starting material. Aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (AC-HRTEM) and EELS elemental mapping characterization showed that the compressive surface strain of AL-Cu2O along the [111] and [200] directions can be precisely tuned from 6.5% to 1.6% and 6.6% to 4.7%, respectively, by changing the number of AL-Cu2O layer from 3 to 6. The as-prepared AL-Cu2O/Cu@Ag NPs exhibited excellent catalytic property in the synthesis of azobenzene from aniline, in which the strained 4-layers Cu2O (4.5% along the [111] direction, 6.1% along the [200] direction) exhibits the best catalytic performance. This work may be beneficial for the design and surface engineering of catalysts toward specific applications.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Compressive surface strained atomic-layer Cu2O on Cu@Ag nanoparticles

Show Author's information Xiyue Zhu1, Hongpan Rong1( ), Xiaobin Zhang2, Qiumei Di1, Huishan Shang1, Bing Bai1, Jiajia Liu1, Jia Liu1, Meng Xu1, Wenxing Chen1, Jiatao Zhang1( )
Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction-Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications,Experimental Center of Advanced Materials, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology,Beijing,100081,China;
Center for Nano Materials and Technology,Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi,Ishikawa,923-1292,Japan;

Abstract

Control of surface structure at the atomic level can effectively tune catalytic properties of nanomaterials. Tuning surface strain is an effective strategy for enhancing catalytic activity; however, the correlation studies between the surface strain with catalytic performance are scant because such mechanistic studies require the precise control of surface strain on catalysts. In this work, a simple strategy of precisely tuning compressive surface strain of atomic-layer Cu2O on Cu@Ag (AL-Cu2O/Cu@Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) is demonstrated. The AL-Cu2O is synthesized by structure evolution of Cu@Ag core-shell nanoparticles, and the precise thickness-control of AL-Cu2O is achieved by tuning the molar ratio of Cu/Ag of the starting material. Aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (AC-HRTEM) and EELS elemental mapping characterization showed that the compressive surface strain of AL-Cu2O along the [111] and [200] directions can be precisely tuned from 6.5% to 1.6% and 6.6% to 4.7%, respectively, by changing the number of AL-Cu2O layer from 3 to 6. The as-prepared AL-Cu2O/Cu@Ag NPs exhibited excellent catalytic property in the synthesis of azobenzene from aniline, in which the strained 4-layers Cu2O (4.5% along the [111] direction, 6.1% along the [200] direction) exhibits the best catalytic performance. This work may be beneficial for the design and surface engineering of catalysts toward specific applications.

Keywords: catalytic activity, compressive surface strain, atomic-layer Cu2O, precise thickness-control

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 25 February 2019
Revised: 11 March 2019
Accepted: 12 March 2019
Published: 28 March 2019
Issue date: May 2019

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51631001, 21643003, 51872030, 51702016, and 51501010), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Beijing Institute of Technology Research Fund Program for Young Scholars and ZDKT18-01 from State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology (Beijing Institute of Technology). The characterization results were supported by Beijing Zhongkebaice Technology Service Co., Ltd.

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